Still Frame Chapter 6
byChapter 6: Isolated Island (1)
Tu Yier and Tu Huisha, the brother and sister, were very kind. When Zhang Liuxin told them that something had happened back home in Yinzhou and they would have to stay here a while longer, the siblings agreed without asking for details.
“If you don’t mind, you can stay in the attic above the inn. There’s one room. It’s not very big, but I clean it often, so it’s quite tidy.”
Tu Yier also added, “I occasionally stay there for a night when I return to town, but usually, it’s just where Feifei takes a nap.”
Saying something about future compensation now felt like showing off, but they couldn’t stay here for free forever. So, Zhang Liuxin, emboldened by Wen Jin’s language barrier, audaciously said, “Thank you. My husband and I will help out in the inn.”
He then turned to Wen Jin and instructed, “Say thank you.”
Wen Jin glanced at him before finally saying, “Thank you.”
Tu Huisha smiled good-naturedly. “It’s nothing. Come on, I’ll take you up to see it.”
She held Duo Fei’s hand and led the two men to the back kitchen. Lifting a curtain, they found a narrow staircase.
“This staircase is narrow and a bit dark, so be careful where you step.”
The low ceiling was cramped for Wen Jin. He had to lower his head and hunch his shoulders, following the mother and daughter. After a couple of steps, he remembered Zhang Liuxin and, once again, mercifully extended his hand to him.
Why had he become so caring toward the disabled after leaving Yinzhou?
“Blind man,” Wen Jin said abruptly. His cold words contrasted sharply with his beautiful, fair hand. “Don’t fall.”
Zhang Liuxin muttered in Bernlinian, “I just have a little night blindness. You’re the blind one.”
Even so, he took Wen Jin’s hand again.
The moment their palms touched, Zhang Liuxin was startled to realize that in just one day, he had become very familiar with the warmth of Wen Jin’s palm.
It wasn’t that they hadn’t held hands before. On the contrary, during public events, they would hold hands for the cameras, link arms, or put an arm loosely around the waist.
But Zhang Liuxin’s memories of those times were like an overexposed black-and-white photo; every time he appeared with Wen Jin in front of the camera, he felt nervous and blank, and he felt nothing when their hands met.
In the narrow stairwell, Wen Jin’s footsteps sounded very clear.
When they reached the attic, Zhang Liuxin released his hand, noticing his palm was slightly sweaty. He quickly tucked his hand behind his back and said, “Thank you.”
Wen Jin didn’t reply. It wasn’t until Tu Huisha spoke that Zhang Liuxin heard a very soft “Mhm.”
“There’s a skylight there; you can push it open. It’s dusty, so you’ll have to wipe it first. If the weather is nice, you can open it to look at the stars.”
“The hot water in the bathroom is a bit slow. Turn the knob to the middle position, and that should be about right. Too far left, and it will be very hot, so be careful.”
Zhang Liuxin memorized everything. After listening to the long list of instructions, he saw Wen Jin already sitting in a nearby rattan chair, resting his chin on his hand and listlessly staring at the empty vase on the table.
“There are some of my brother’s clothes in the wardrobe. They are clean; you can change into them.”
“Okay, thank you so much.”
The silver lining in their misfortune was meeting this family. Zhang Liuxin had never felt so lucky.
Tu Huisha shook her head, picked up her daughter, and told them, “I’ll go down to prepare lunch now. You can take a shower and rest.”
“Alright.”
The door closed again, leaving only the two of them in the attic.
Perhaps because Wen Jin was tall, his presence made the space feel much smaller.
“Do you want to shower?”
“Mhm.”
With that, Wen Jin took off his jacket and began unbuttoning his shirt.
“Wait,” Zhang Liuxin averted his gaze. “Your chest wound hasn’t healed yet. You shouldn’t shower. Just wipe yourself down.”
Wen Jin had already stripped off his shirt, revealing his muscular upper body. He abruptly leaned closer, and Zhang Liuxin caught a flash of dazzling, cold white skin in his peripheral vision.
Zhang Liuxin heard a “click” and realized it was the sound of a belt buckle. He turned his head further away.
“Wen, Wen Jin, go into the bathroom before you take off any more clothes.”
Wen Jin used one hand to cup the back of his neck, forcing him to turn his head. Zhang Liuxin was caught off guard, seeing Wen Jin’s clearly defined shark abs, extending down to a tightly fastened belt.
“Zhang Liuxin, is this our first day knowing each other?” Zhang Liuxin wondered how Wen Jin could say such a thing so matter-of-factly with such an aloof expression. “You wipe me down.”
“Wen Jin, you…” He wanted to say, “Stop messing around,” but the next second, a white bath towel descended from above, obscuring his vision.
Behind him, he heard the bathroom door open, accompanied by Wen Jin’s calm voice: “Hurry up.”
No one here cared about their relationship, and no one cared if they were an affectionate husband and husband. Why was Wen Jin still acting so entitled?
Zhang Liuxin pulled the towel off his head, sighed, and followed him. “My exoskeleton isn’t very waterproof.”
He saw Wen Jin about to turn on the shower and quickly pressed down on his hand. “You need to wrap that wound in plastic, or it will get infected if it gets wet.”
Wen Jin looked down at him, his gaze, like an intricate line drawing, falling onto his left leg. “Then take that off.”
Zhang Liuxin felt a little defeated, thinking Wen Jin was mean, knowing full well that he would look ridiculous walking without the exoskeleton.
“Let’s shower together.”
“Huh?” Zhang Liuxin suspected he had misheard.
Wen Jin thought he was overreacting. He leaned against the sink, which was slightly too low for him. The outline of his abs slightly indented, gently rising and falling with his breathing.
“Are your ears bad too?”
Zhang Liuxin felt exhausted. “I heard you. Wen Jin, stop messing around.”
Under normal circumstances, Zhang Liuxin would never speak to Wen Jin like this, but now Wen Jin wasn’t Professor Wen, wasn’t Young Master Wen. In this unfamiliar place, they were equal and foreign outsiders.
Still, Zhang Liuxin felt that Wen Jin’s young master temper had flared up too suddenly, his words carrying a tone of imperiousness. Yet, because his tone was so flat, his expression so cold, and his face so handsome, it sounded like a command issued by a meticulously designed AI.
The softest persimmon is the easiest to squeeze, and Zhang Liuxin was precisely the softest persimmon in front of Wen Jin.
He found a plastic bag outside and, after much persuasion, managed to wrap Wen Jin’s wound. Once it was wrapped, he couldn’t help but let out a small laugh, earning a chilly glare from Wen Jin.
Then, he turned around to remove his exoskeleton and place it outside. When he looked back, Wen Jin stood in the center of the bathroom like a flawless sculpture.
Wen Jin’s upper and lower body felt disconnected. Zhang Liuxin was always willing to look at his cold yet incredibly beautiful face, deliberately avoiding the rest.
He dampened a towel with warm water, a hint of complaint unconsciously creeping into his tone. “You could clearly wipe yourself.”
Wen Jin only needed to lower his head slightly to see Zhang Liuxin’s thick, soft black hair. Through the trembling strands, he could see his slightly curled eyelashes and elegant nose bridge in the tiny gaps.
He said carelessly, “Too tired.”
Zhang Liuxin carefully avoided the wound while wiping his abdomen. This area was too sensitive, and Zhang Liuxin had to exert all his self-control not to let his eyes stray to places they shouldn’t.
“Zhang Liuxin, I thought you were tickling me.”
Why was he so difficult to serve?
Zhang Liuxin deliberately pressed harder, but he hadn’t expected Wen Jin’s skin to be so thin; a little force brought up a faint layer of pink. Seeing the shallow, protruding veins, he couldn’t bear it and eased up, wiping him with normal pressure, keeping his eyes straight ahead until he was finished.
Zhang Liuxin tossed the towel aside and said, “You wash the rest yourself.”
Then he quickly left the bathroom.
After leaving the bathroom, Zhang Liuxin didn’t rush to put on the exoskeleton. He sighed inwardly and hobbled toward the bed.
Without the aid of the exoskeleton, Zhang Liuxin was unaccustomed to walking even this short distance. Phantom pain and muscle soreness attacked him simultaneously, making him feel exhausted. His heart felt heavy, as if it were damp with moisture, like his trouser cuffs.
He looked at the closed bathroom door, thinking that if it weren’t for the person inside, he probably wouldn’t even have the chance to use an exoskeleton and would be a lifelong cripple.
So, he obediently put the exoskeleton back on, hoping that the troubles in Yinzhou would end soon. It wasn’t for any other reason; it was just that his exoskeleton needed charging, and he felt that his relationship with Wen Jin should return to normal as quickly as possible.
Wen Jin finished showering quickly. He changed into Tu Yier’s clothes. With his fringe hanging down, his face looked several years younger, less like a university professor and more like a college student—the kind of handsome upperclassman who was popular on campus, which Wen Jin certainly had been back then.
“You go wash.”
“Mhm.”
Wen Jin, being a cold-water animal, had the water temperature set very low, so there was hardly any steam in the bathroom.
The scents of the shower gels here in Bernlin were unusual—a tropical blend of flowers and fruit. Perhaps because of his half-Bernlinian heritage, Zhang Liuxin liked this scent the first time he smelled it.
The clothes were a bit too big for him. He adjusted them for a long time, but they still hung loosely, so he had to make do.
When he came out, Wen Jin was still sitting in the rattan chair. A beam of sunlight from the skylight cut his face into two halves: one delicate and soft, the other noble and untouchable.
A book lay open in front of him—a classic novel with a red velvet cover. However, the content was densely packed with Bernlinian, so Wen Jin had only casually opened a page and was looking at it lazily.
As Zhang Liuxin approached, the scents on their bodies intimately mingled. But due to Zhang Liuxin’s psychological factors, he felt that even the floral and fruity scent on Wen Jin was somewhat cold, like a flowing, dark stream.
“What does this mean?” Wen Jin pointed to a line of text. “It appears many times on this page. The first one should be ‘I’.”
Zhang Liuxin looked over. Wen Jin was right; the plot on this page happened to be the male and female leads passionately confessing their love, with “I love you” filling the pages, which was a bit jarring.
Zhang Liuxin shook his head. “I don’t recognize it either.”
Wen Jin said nothing. After flipping through a few more pages, he closed the book, bored.
He looked up in dissatisfaction, his critical gaze scrutinizing Zhang Liuxin’s collarbone, making Zhang Liuxin uncomfortable.
“Why are you so thin?”
Zhang Liuxin tugged at the corner of his shirt. “The clothes are too big.”
Wen Jin was still displeased. “If you don’t like the food the chef and nutritionist at home make, you can replace them directly.”
That wasn’t the point at all.
Zhang Liuxin shook his head. “No, I’m used to it. Aunt Lin’s cooking is delicious.”
Besides, ultimately, neither the chef nor the nutritionist, nor even that house, belonged to him.
Wen Jin’s sharp gaze, like a ruler, fell on his waist. Just as he was about to say something, Zhang Liuxin pulled his hand away and told him, “Let’s go downstairs.”
Wen Jin withdrew his hand, placed the book back on the shelf in the corner, and didn’t reply again.
When they went downstairs, he didn’t offer his hand to Zhang Liuxin again.